


My Daniel

by Emono



Series: Prince Ryan AU [1]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Backstory, Curses, Dirty Talk, M/M, Mentioned Myan, Mild Smut, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Possessive Behavior, Rutting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 11:19:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5926545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emono/pseuds/Emono
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prince James Ryan Haywood was cursed at birth by a dark fae. </p><p>"All shall love you." </p><p>There are few people in Ryan's life who seem to be able to resist the curse. Dan is one of them. His love is true and untouched by the curse, and besides Ramsey he is the most dedicated and loyal knight the prince has. But Ryan's life is not destined to be a normal one, and even his most pure hearted knight cannot escape the darkness that seems to follow the royal wherever he goes. As a human, Dan has no chance to be with Ryan as he so badly wants, not with him so bound by his duty. But as a monster? Maybe...maybe there is a chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Daniel

**So[here's the link ](http://emono-omae.tumblr.com/tagged/prince-ryan-au)for the AU. Check it out before you read so you can kind of understand what's going on. Or take it as it is. Hope you guys enjoy it, feedback is really appreciated since I've been feeling the tiniest bit icky lately. I have like two or three more of these I want to do. Also there's a second chapter I have outlined if that's something you guys would be interested in, the second half of Dan's story.**

 

 

* * *

 

 

Dan’s father served the Haywood family, and his father before that. Dan was a third generation knight to the royals and he had always held himself to that standard, even as a young boy. His father had instilled in him a stalwart sense of honor, pride, truth, and justice. Ryan, the young prince and heir, was his charge from the moment Dan was old enough to take the vows at the tender age of sixteen, with the princeling being only eleven summers old at the time.

  


King Haywood had introduced his young son to the fresh-faced knight and from that day their destinies had twined into a tight knot. Ryan was Dan’s shadow, though it was officially the other way around. They took a lot of their meals together on the prince’s insistence, trained together, even the royal lessons were attended by the young knight. Growing up and training with Dan had its benefits for the prince as the knight was put through hell for his training, going up again rising stars such as Ramsey to toughen him up more quickly. The whole time the princeling was right there by Dan’s side, taking the same beatings and getting put on his ass twice as much.

  


It was bonding. With each broken bone and deep bruice, they became closer.

  


Prince James Ryan Haywood was a cursed royal, ‘blessed’ as a child by a dark fae on his Naming Day. _**All shall love you**_ _._ And all did. Every person who met the prince, every creature who crossed his path, even the flowers seems to strain towards him as he walked by. His people adored him, from a chubby cheeked infant to a gangly youth - everyone who laid an eye on Ryan was captivated. Innocent affection as he grew but as he inched toward maturity it seemed lust and overwhelming love grew in those he met.

  


But Dan’s eyes were sharp, and his heart was pure. Out of all who fell under the weave of the spell, Dan was always the least affected. He could make Ryan finish his meals, take his baths, and kept the prince on a tight leash to keep/ him out of trouble. One of Dan’s unspoken duties was to protect Ryan from those twisted up in the curse who attempted to get closer than was appropriate.

  


Once, Dan went to the prince’s chambers to find Ryan confused and mildly terrified as a bard (who had climbed up the vines and stone ledges to the window) bellowed out a love sonnet and promised him never-ending love though he didn’t have a penny to his name. Awkward and shy, Ryan gave the man a small purse of silver before Dan forcibly escorted him out of the castle.

  


But that was pale in comparison to when the kidnappings started. Ryan was a slick kid, limber and quick, and with an unquenchable thirst for freedom. He loved to explore, his heart yearning for adventure, and that meant escaping the guards and slipping out of the castle - out of the city, even, all wrapped up in a cloak.

  


There was a wilderness surrounding the city, thinning out in some places for the main roads, but the thickest of it was the _Bantuit_ Forest. Haunted, they called it. Stuffed with all sorts of monsters and ruled by a mysterious Wild King, a being even the Elders had no scrolls written on. It was there that Ryan sought his fun, following the stories of dragons and giants and wizards by skittering through the brush with his sword and bow.

  


By the time they realized Ryan was gone, he had already been snatched away.

  


o0o0o0o

  


Ryan was missing for three days. Thanks to the young court Seer, Lindsay, they found the prince held up by a den of direwolves. Through some brute force and fire, a large band of trained knights flooded the caves and searched until Ryan was found. Hungry, filthy, clothes torn and smelling of pure wolf - but safe. The wolves had licked and pawed at the prince, sleeping in a pile around him, and he was shook up from it.

  


Dan fell before his prince and looked him over, hands roaming and searching for wounds. “Ryan, by the gods, you terrified us. You ran off! You were in your room and then you were _gone_. I looked everywhere before sounding the alarm, I was sure you were hiding.” Dan cut off his rant as Ryan whined in the back of his throat, curling in on himself. The knight shifted closer, thick leather armor creaking as he cupped the prince’s shoulders. “James, look at me.”

  


Blue eyes darted up to his.

  


“You’re safe now.”

  


“I...thought they were going to eat me, but they never did. They just licked me.” Ryan’s voice was wavering, fingers twitching as they balled into fists at his sides. “I didn’t mean to scare you, I just wanted to look at the forest...Father never lets me…”

  


“For good reason,” Dan murmured, taking the prince’s hands and warming them in his gloves. “But now I’m going to take you home. I’ll prepare a hot bath and get you some of your favorite meats. How does that sound?”

  


Ryan sagged and he looked all his fifteen years. “ _Please_.”

  


Around the bend, another torch flared up. “Dan? Is he alright?”

  


“Gods blood,” Ryan cursed, turning his face away to hide the blush. “Is Geoff here? He’s going to see me like this.”

  


Dan looked his prince over, filthy but whole. “Hush. You look perfect. Come.”

  


o0o0o0o0o0o

  


Two years later, and a hundred small kidnapping attempts (and some successes), Ryan was taken by a more serious threat. Not just a pack of wolves or a bear or that one swarm of gnomes that were insanely polite for stealing the kingdom’s heir - but this being was a true monster, one of legend. There were rare sightings of true dragons so when even the lowliest of farmer saw one it was a quick fire spread to the nearest kingdoms.

  


When Dan heard of a dragon swooping down low over the _Bantuit_ Forest he ran from the dining hall and straight to the prince’s chambers. Ryan was gone - bed and hearth cold.

  


“Rouse the men, our prince has been taken!”

  


o0o

  


Tracking down the dragon took no small army. They drew men from all across the Realm and stormed the mountains, spreading out and hunting for its lair. They were lucky, they found the beast distracted on a rocky cliffside with several other large reptilian beasts, great salamanders who tried to strike the dragon with fire only to find it absorbed and shot back at them. The knights lined up to slay, to take out the beast outside its deep lair while they had the advantage, even though most were terrified, but it was Ryan who stood between them and the legendary beast.

  


“Get out of here, Michael!” Ryan waved, calling to the towering beast. “They’ll kill you! You don’t understand, they won’t stop until I go back!” The knights stood in stunned silence as the dragon’s snout very softly brushed the prince’s chest, and jaws dropped as the scales were lovingly pet. “I’ll see you again. But you have to go - _now_.”

  


There was a great roar of protest but Ryan boldly pushed at the dragon’s snout, shouting at him to leave. Long, impressive wings beat against the air and the beast took off into the air. It did circles above them, shrieking fiercely and making even the bravest among them tremble. It was no simple creature. Larger than anything they’d ever seen, scales in dazzling crimsons and golds and ebony, massive claws and fangs. They watched it with wide, horrified gazes and kept their sights on it until it flew away, disappearing into the clouds.

  


There wasn’t much time to question, to figure out what in the world they had just seen. The salamanders had not left and they were drawn to the prince.

  


There was still a fight on their hands.

  


o0o

  


The salamanders left their mark upon them all, even the prince.

  


In the castle, Dan shut himself and Ryan within the royal chambers so he could quietly tend to his wounds. Ryan was a little singed in some places, scratched up, but overall safe. Geoff was being treated for burns by some of the best healers the King could find on short notice. Dan had already been patched up - ribs bandaged, one arm covered in salve and wrapped up as well from a well shot spit of fire.

  


“Ow,” Ryan hissed, flinching away. Dan kept a firm grip on the prince’s elbow and continued cleaning the bloody cuts, rinsing his rag briefly in the bowl of herb wash sitting by his hip. He wrung it out before running it over the boy’s forearm, mopping up the dried beads of blood.

  


“Why don’t you tell me about the dragon?” Dan asked, voice quiet and encouraging. It was a question burning through the mind of all the knights but he wanted to give the prince a chance to explain himself, to tell the story in privacy. “DId it try to communicate with you?”

  


“Him.”

  


Dan paused. “I’m sorry?”

  


“The dragon was a male, and he went by ‘Michael’.”

  


“Michael,” Dan repeated.

  


Ryan nodded. “Michael. He said I smelled like his mate, and that he wanted to meet me. We were in his home, these...caves. They were deep in the mountain.” He sighed softly, eyes glazing over as he seemed to get lost in the memory. “He has so much treasure stored away, hoarded from an uncountable amount of time upon this earth. He said he’s been around since before man and smelling me, feeling my energy even from the mountains...I was the first he’d ever wanted to encounter. That before me, humans were only a pest.”

  


Ryan chewed his lower lip. “He had a human-esque form. Towering above me, twice as big, so terrifying and winged but...gods, he was beautiful, even monstrous as he was.”

  


Dan felt a pang of fear but continued cleaning up the prince, cleaning up a particularly deep claw mark from a salamander that had got too close before getting beheaded. “The curse seems to be growing as you do. The past few monsters, this dragon, they appear to want you in a more carnal way, my prince.”

  


Ryan’s cheeks went pink and his lips curved around a soft _oh_.

  


“With as fiercely as he protected you, and as quickly as he listened to you, it seems he really does feel as if you’re...his _mate_ ,” Dan stated with a low level of awe. “A dragon that believes his human to be his mate. The curse is strong, stronger than we may have believed.”

  


“He did truly believe it,” Ryan sighed, knuckles rubbing his cheek as if to dissolve the blush there. “He told me so in numerous, poetic ways. He was _adamant_.”

  


Dan looked over the prince’s soft, shy expression and his chest clenched. “You liked him.”

  


“I-I did,” Ryan fumbled, eyes on the rich carpet by his bed.

  


Dan laid the rag in the bowl and set it aside out of the way. He took Ryan’s hand and his heart skipped at the way the boy clutched at his fingers like a lifeline. Even after all these years, he was still important to his prince, still a figure of comfort. With Ryan’s new habit of putting on a tough exterior in front of superiors, it was a relief to know those walls weren’t up around him. “Tell me what happened.”

  


“We...we did things.” Ryan’s voice was breathy, eyes still lost in memories. “ _Wonderful_ things.”

  


Dan gaped dumbly. “Ryan!”

  


“We didn’t consummate anything!” Ryan blurted out, cheeks flushing darker. He stuttered over some nonsense before he quieted, lashes falling low. “We just touched, and kissed.” Teeth raked over a pink lip and Dan’s eyes eagerly tracked the movement. “ _Everywhere_.”

  


“James Ryan, I’m very disappointed,” Dan scolded, squeezing the prince’s hand to make meet his gaze. “You are a Haywood, from an ancient line of royals chosen by the gods themselves back when civilization was still just a dream. Your family stems from natural rulers, not one usurper amongst them. Your blood weighs as heavy as gold by the drop. Your heirs will be the heirs to the Realm, your chosen partner more important than every coin in our coffers. A marriage, a coupling, of yours - it will unite families, kingdoms, maybe _nations_.”  


 

Ryan whimpered in shame and he kissed the prince’s hand. He gentled his tone.

  


“You are important, Ryan, you always will be. Whomever you become bound to will have the keys to all the kingdoms if that’s what they wish. Your heirs will be very precious to your people.”

  


Ryan chewed his lip once more, a nervous habit since childhood. “I know, Daniel. But what if…?”

  


“Ryan, _no_!” Dan laughed, almost a nervous gesture as he saw the hopeful gleam in the beautiful eyes of his prince. “They want your _virtue_. By the gods, you cannot find such a thought tempting? They aren’t proper suitors, sire, they’re _monsters_.”

  


“You’re so worried about me.” The husk in the prince’s voice made Dan swallowed nervously. “So concerned someone will warm my bed before...who? A princess? Another prince?”

  


“You are a royal,” Dan replied meekly. “Your partner of choice should be of equal standing.”

  


Ryan’s lips pulled in a grin. The prince was always very gentle, very reserved around people. Timid, even, when faced with overwhelming situations. But as he got older, there was a sharper side emerging in him. Dan was lucky to see the budding of wit, strength, and dark humor. Ryan would shed this shy, wilting flower persona one day and would grow into a true king. It was _immensely_ attractive, just like everything about Ryan.

  


And Dan truly felt in his heart that that _wasn’t_ the curse talking.  

  


Ryan scooted closer until their thighs were touching, the prince’s fingers brushing over his knee. “What if I give my virtue to _you_ , noble Daniel?”

  


Dan’s ears grew hot. “Your Highness!”

  


“Someone I trust…” Ryan’s fingers danced up his thigh and he could feel it all through the thin leggings. Their shoulders pressed and the heat of the prince had his breath hitching. Dan was so distracted he jumped when he felt the first kiss on his jaw. Stubble rubbed against firm lips but the prince happily trailed kisses up to the tender skin behind his ear. Goosebumps cropped up and for the first time the knight did not know what was best. “Someone who will always protect me.”

  


“Ryan…” Dan’s hands slapped onto the bed as the prince shifted around and swung a leg over his lap, straddling him. He fisted the sheet in both hands, holding his breath. Panic was swelling like a bubble in his chest as the prince settled so warmly on him, straddling him, now smiling so enticingly. Ryan cupped each side of his jaw and urged him to tip his head up, their eyes fully meeting. “Sire, please.”

  


“Someone I love.”

  


Dan whined faintly at the words, heart bursting. Ryan’s smile was brilliant and disarming, and he fell for it. Dan hardly had a moment to suck in a breath for a protest before Ryan dipped down and kissed him. The suddenness stung. They had never done such a thing before. It had only been a rare daydream, a nightly yearning, and now he could truly taste his prince. Chaste only for seconds before Ryan moaned in delight and pressed closer, thumbs digging into darkly stubbled cheeks. Dan parted his lips for the warm, searching tongue and the kiss deepened. He kept his hands on the bed but he allowed himself such an intimacy with his prince, promising himself only this once to satisfy the desire that had been itching at him for so long now.

  


But Ryan didn’t seemed satisfied with just a taste. The kiss lasted until neither of them could catch their breath and even then the parting was reluctant.

  


Dan tried to laugh it off but the wild flutter of his heart made it difficult to do more than attempt to get a full breath. “I-I believe the dragon has left lust in your blood.”

  


“No, my Daniel,” Ryan purred, taking one of the man’s hands and prying it off the bed. Dan watched with wide eyes as his hand was dragged between the prince’s thighs. “Only _heat_.”

  


Dan’s lip quivered as his palm was laid against a distinct bulge. The prince was straining against his sleep pants and it was so plump, so temptingly warm. Logic cut through the lust long enough to remind him that a legendary beast had his claws all over his prince, and he wouldn’t be the last.

  


“You mustn’t play with these monsters, Ryan,” Dan insisted, moving his hand to rest on the boy’s thigh instead to keep his head clear. “They will stain you with their darkness.”

  


Ryan brushed their lips, sighing delicately against them. “I’d rather be stained by something warmer.” Dan made a strangled noise of surprise and got his lip lightly bitten, playful and sending a _zing_ of pleasure straight to his own cock.

  


“My prince…”

  


“My knight,” Ryan whispered back, thumb dragging over the man’s chin. He smiled and it was so painfully youthful, so light. “You’re so handsome. I’ve always looked at you in awe...you are everything a knight should be, everything I could ever want by my side.”

  


Dan flushed in pride. It was no secret that Ryan looked up to him, it had always been a source of great joy in his life and had driven him to try to be the best knight he could. To be the best of everything, to prove he was worth the prince’s admiration.

  


Ryan’s hands settled on his shoulders and pet down over his chest. Fingers fanned out and hooked just under the line of his tunic, suddenly too thin for any shield against the haze of desire thickening in the grand room. The hearth burned too hot, every press of skin searing him. He feared he would scar beyond healing.

  


“We mustn't,” Dan choked out, straining for control. Ryan was more potent than mead, far richer than any wine he’d ever tasted.

  


“But we _can_ ,” Ryan insisted, thumb dipping up under his shirt to rub at the knight’s stomach. “No one would know.”

  


“Gods, you sinful thing,” Dan hissed through clenched teeth, still struggling not to touch more than the passive lay of his palm on the boy’s thigh. “What has brought this on? Have we not always been brotherly? We grew up together, I saw you as just a young boy. Gods, you are _still_ a young boy.”

  


Ryan steeled his jaw and he could see a flash of the king he would one day be. “I have always wanted you, Daniel, and the love I’ve felt between us I’ve never made secret to you. No one would approve, I know this!” He looked away briefly, gathering himself before looking back. “My father wouldn’t want this, but _I_ do. I have loved you since before I knew what that it meant to yearn for someone.”

  


Dan’s heart clenched.

  


“We can’t marry and have heirs, but that’s not what this is,” Ryan pleaded, hands coming up again to gently touch the man’s cheeks. “I’m not asking you to bind yourself to me. I’m not asking for anymore than for you to love me back, to share this with me. To lay with me, to teach me.” His smile was small and sweet, tugging at Dan’s heartstrings. “As you always have, my Daniel.”

  


“Why?” Dan could barely rasp out the word, his entire form threatening to bust at the seams with how very _full_ he feel. “Why now?”

  


“Because Michael loved me like I love you. I saw myself in him.” Ryan worried his lower lip, chaffing the abused flesh. “Please, Dan....please don’t say I’m mistaken? Please tell me I haven’t thrown my heart at your feet for no reward?” Ryan desperately searched his face and whined faintly at what he found. “You don’t feel the same.”

  


“No!” Dan startled, hands shooting up to grab the prince’s hips. “No, my prince. I love you with everything I am, I always have. This is just...sudden, and forbidden. I don’t understand where this ardor has come from. I mean...the admission of such feelings when you _know_ that to have it revealed would destroy me if your father was to find us.”

  


“Daniel. I was just captured by a dragon.” The prince’s tone was as dry as his smile. “The next monster might not be so gentle. The next one may rip out my throat in its need to be closer to me and then where will my ‘ardor’ be? Lost, unspoken, I could not bare-”

  


Dan grabbed him by the nape and dragged him into another kiss, cutting off the heartbreaking confession. Maybe it was weakness, maybe lust, maybe even the fae curse - but Dan no longer wanted to fight against whatever it was between them. However wrong it may have been, nothing felt more right than Ryan here safe in his arms.

  


With the way Ryan melted into him, he felt the same way.

  


o0o

  


It was a week before King Haywood’s worry for his son relaxed. The guards were still vigilant but the strict watch on the prince’s chambers lifted to allow Dan to often slip in without suspicion.

  


The night he entered the prince’s chambers with the intent to spend the night, Dan found it had been set like that out of a fairytale. Ryan had struck up his own hearth and had lit a few candles, casting the room in a golden glow. The prince had stripped his large bed of pillows and buried them under layers of furs from past kills. It was almost primal - a nest.

  


Ryan, dressed in nothing but a flimsy silk robe, sauntered up and took his hand. “Come, Daniel…”

  


Outside the wind howled and the night took on a chill that worked into the bones of those who guarded the castle. But the prince and his knight shut the windows and curtains against the night and carved out a little chunk of the world just for the two of them. It was feverish in front of the fire, beads of sweat rolling down the long line of backs and dipping into collars. They stripped to nothing and rolled on the furs together, mouths slotted hard and they strived to taste as much as they could.

  


“Daniel,” Ryan whimpered against his lips, wrapping his arms tight around the knight.

  


“My prince, I’m here,” Dan promised, brushing their noses. “I will never leave you.”

  


“You’ll stay? Forever?” Ryan pleaded. He felt so open, so vulnerable, and he never wanted his beloved protector to leave.

  


“Forever,” he swore.

  


Ryan rolled on top of him, biting the man’s lip and clumsily thrusting against him. He was making needy little noises like a pup, humping and looking for every drop of pleasure. Dan hushed him lovingly and took the prince’s hips in his hands, slowing his movements and guiding him into a more fluid grind. Ryan’s mouth dropped in dumbstruck awe as their cocks slid together, drizzled already in need and oil. It was slick and hot, the two moving together more smoothly.

  


“Dan,” Ryan moaned, stunned and pawing at the man’s chest. “It’s so good. Better than by myself...pl-please tell me we can do this every night?”

  


Dan laughed softly, cheeks red and cock straining as the sweet prince rubbed against him in such genuine need. The image of Ryan alone in his bed, hand between his thighs trying to find true pleasure all by himself. “Let’s get through this night first, sire.”

  


Ryan noticeably twitched at that, nails biting into the older man’s stomach. “Say it again.”

  


Dan sat up and grabbed two handfuls of thick cheeks, keeping him moving and close. “My prince, my only beloved.” He stole a firm kiss and resisted the urge to fist that blonde hair and put that pretty mouth somewhere more useful. “I am yours, completely. Do with me what you wish.”

  


Ryan snagged dark locks in his fist and panted against the man’s mouth. “I want you to fuck me.”

  


He lost his breath in an audible _whoosh_ and clutched onto the prince. “I cannot. I cannot be the one...your father, he would take my head…”

  


Ryan growled and the sound was shockingly feral. Hands clamped on the knight’s shoulders and he was pinned hard to the makeshift nest, the prince hovering over him with a scowl. “Then your punishment for defying a direct order is to be bound to me, only to me.”

  


Dan’s brow furrowed, “Sire, I _am_ , always.”

  


“No,” Ryan sneered, fingers aching to curl over the man’s pale throat for such insolence. “If you won’t give me what I want, then you will give yourself to no one else. Touch us.”

  


Dan nodded quickly and wrapped his hand around both their lengths, hissing in pleasure as they were squeezed so close. He pumped slowly at first, trying to do what he’d always wanted and teach the prince how to bed, but another growling noise made him hurry his pace. Ryan’s scowl of frustration melted and he started moaning again, even smiling a little as he rocked into the man’s fist.

  


“There we go,” Ryan purred, his scratches becoming soothing pets over the knight’s chest. “Gods, Dan, if I find another warming your bed I’ll kill them myself.”

  


Dan hated that he felt a flare of pure heat at the words. The possessiveness, the serious shine in his eyes, the way his fingers felt like they were leaving invisible marking trails on his skin...if there was anyone he wanted to own him, it would be his prince.

  


Ryan leaned over him, kissing him with more of that sweet possessive passion. “If you won’t use me as your sheathe, my knight, then you will not have one.”

  


Dan bit his lip, lashes falling low. “Yes, my prince.”

  


“You won’t take a maid or another knight, no farmer, no royal, no courtier,” Ryan huffed out the titles as he rutted into the man’s hand, getting lost in the pleasure. “If I find you even trying to take another’s mouth, I will collar you. Brand you with my crest. If, _ah_ , if you betray me you will live with my mark.”

  


Ryan laughed in victory as the knight flipped him over onto his back and kissed a wet trail down the length of him. He kept fingers laced in dark hair as Dan slid those pretty lips over the head of his cock. Ryan’s pleased chuckle twisted into a low moan that only grew louder as the man slid down his length. It was beyond any sensation he’d ever felt. Dan knew what he was doing and the obvious experience was only driving him higher. The slick slide of a tongue over his cock, the tight pressure, the quiet noises Dan made as he sucked. Ryan hooked a thigh over his shoulder and rutted up between his lips, wanting more.

  


“My Daniel,” Ryan breathed out, hair ruffling as he tossed his head on the furs. “Yes, just like this...I know you want to take your time with me.” His chest heaved as a wash of pleasure rocked through him. “We will, explore all of each other. You’ll teach me so much.”

  


Dan slid off his cock and nodded, panting lightly. “We have all night.”

  


Ryan flashed him a grin, grabbing more tightly at the man’s hair and guiding his mouth back in place. “We’ll have many nights.”

  
  
  
  
  
  


 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, BecBec, for inspiring me!! Your rants made it into this because they were hot


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